Some Brewing Success, I think

Northern Brewer General
1

Been brewing for less than two years, but pretty much dove head into the obsession. First batch of all grain was last December but before that I really tried to hone my processes down during extract brews and partial mashes. Moving to a new home in March forced me to take a break and relearn a lot of processes because the set up is completely different. Plus I was still honing my all grain skills.

Anyway, Sunday we had our first “big” party which was a combination housewarming/football (Redskins)/Octoberfest homebrew party. There were about 40-50 adults there and I had 8 kegs on tap:

Wit
ESB
Cream Ale
Oatmeal Stout
Amber Ale (very close to Waldo Lake Amber)
Pumpkin Ale
Czech Pilsner
Octoberfest

Overall it was a huge success. Most of the people I talked to and asked for honest feedback but did not get much other than glowing reviews. It was interesting to watch people go up to a pitcher and pour a small sample, taste it, smile and proceed to pour a full glass. Plenty of BMC and light beer alternatives, but very little was consumed. Lots of people wanted a tour of my brewery and had no clue that I started with raw grains to brew all of this.

I have had a lot of people come drink my beer in the past, but it was great to have a level of confirmation that what I am doing is actually really good beer. There are some things that I would tweak on a few recipes, but that is the process. I killed a few kegs to make some more room for some batches that needed those, so all is good.

2

Yeah I know what you are saying its fun to brew the beer for a event and to hear what people have to say about it. This summer I brewed up three kegs of beer for my best friends wedding. It felt pretty great to have tons of people that I have never meet go out of their way to shake my hand and thank me for the beer. At the end of the night there was close to a full keg of bud light and 3 empty kegs of my beer sitting on ice.

Only had one person come up and tell me beer tasted like shit. He said the Irish red was too bitter, The american pale ale was too bitter, and the british bitter was too bitter. lol